Dark spots - young plants (pics)

[etinarcadiaego]

These are in soil, are were started in MG (I know - bad idea) and transplanted into FF Planting Mix 10 days ago amending with 25% perlite.

I watered 3 days ago (Friday) and the runoff was pH 5 on all my plants. So I flushed with water pH 8.0 until the runoff was pH 6, then I flushed with some distilled water till the pH was 6.5. All in all I used about 5-6X the capacity of the pots, so about 5 gallons of water for 1 gallon of soil.

I cranked the exhaust fan and my dehumidifier and waited until today. Today the runoff after the watering was pretty stable on every plant @ pH 6.25(ish). All the plants look okay except for one, which looks like this:

This plant is about 4 weeks old. None of my plants have ever been fed any nutrients of any kind. They are vegging under a 400Watt Metal Halide at the moment, but were started outside and only came in about 5 days ago.

Is this just a response to the pH fluctuation, since I flushed so heavily all-at-once rather than gradually over time? If so will this problem stop now that the pH appears to have stabilized?

Any help appreciated!

Here is a group shot, sick plant in the very front:

 

[etinarcadiaego]

bump

 

[ibjamming]

They've gotten too wet...they're drowning from the flush. Can you get them in a new pot with new DRY soil? (Not bone dry...like out of the bag dry) If not, don't get anything wet near them for at least a week. Hopefully they'll pull out of it...they're a good size, they should.

Instead of flushing it...(BTW, why does everyone always want to flush so fast?) Top dress with dolomite lime. Add some water, voila! Ph goes up!

Those leaves you have pictured...they were the first leaves, they show signes of overwatering when young. Do you let things dry enough?

That's my opinion...

 

[etinarcadiaego]

Thanks for the reply. Those plants are 4 weeks old, but spent about 3 weeks and 2 days outside, so I can't say how often they were watered as mother nature took care of that.

Since they came in I've watered once on Friday (FLUSH) and once today.

You think they'll get better if I let em dry out more than usual?

I usually water when I can put my finger in a couple of inches and it's pretty dry.

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

They do look overwatered as ibjammin says, but plants that size in pots that size in a mix like that definitely have roots all over the bottom of those pots. That means the only way to overwater is by first underwatering and killing some of those exposed, bottom of the container roots. Before you say 'I didn't underwater', consider how much water plants that size in containers that size need when they're growing fast, which they look like they were a week or so ago. Overwatering and underwatering often follow each other, either by our overcompensation, or by causing actual root death.